Anantara Kihavah Villas Maldives: Paradise on Earth

More than a decade ago when email forwards were all the rage, Tim and I received a forward of a bungalow over some of the bluest, clearest water we had ever seen. It had glass portals in the floor to watch the fish below and it looked absolutely magical. It turned out to be in the Maldives, and at the time, out of our reach. One day…we said. Ten years later, we found ourselves on what still feels like the dream trip of a lifetime. We spent a glorious four days as guests of Anantara Kihavah Villas Maldives and the resort island definitely has a whole lot of WOW-factor.

Can you spot the dolphin?

Anantara Kihavah Villas is located on the Baa Atoll, a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve, 125 kilometers from the Madlives’ captial Malé. Guests of the island resort arrive via a seaplane transfer, which is treat in and of itself as you fly over aquamarine-ringed island after island on the way. As if on cue, dolphins jumped out of the water and greeted us, chasing our boat’s wake as we made the final transfer from the seaplane’s floating platform a few hundred yards offshore to the island paradise.

The over water villas

Our villa host, Mausool, was waiting to whisk us away to our over water villas.

Our over water villa’s bedroom

The bathroom has a glass bottom bathtub

Mausool pulled our buggy to a stop and pushed open the doors to an airy villa filled with light and endless views of the Indian Ocean. After a quick tour – here are your his and hers walk-in wardrobes, outdoor rinse shower, indoor rain shower, wine refrigerator, iPhone docking station and sound system – he invited us to have a seat on our deck. Handing over a special welcome cocktail he had prepared, we each dipped our feet into ginger foot baths. Ah, this was life…

Swimming in the Indian Ocean right from our deck

We could watch fish and stingrays swim right from our deck

Mausool left us to relax and that is just what we did for the rest of the afternoon. We alternated swimming in the Indian Ocean right off our amazing deck with dips in our private infinity pool. A call to Mausool and lunch was served right on our deck. There was no reason to leave. We ate and watched as more dolphins played in the water just in front of our villa. A curious stingray swam right up to our steps.

The perfect place to nap

The day’s toughest decision was where to nap. On the over water hammocks at the deck’s edge? Or maybe on the sun loungers? The full-sized daybed swing won out in the end as we rocked and listened to the waves lapping at the villa.

A romantic bath for two awaited our arrival home from dinner

Nighttime is romantic; the privacy of the over water villas perfect for skinny dips in the infinity pool and romantic soaks in the glass bottom bath. Cradled in Egyptian cotton, we slept like babies each night as the tide brought in waves that would crash up under our villa.

Anantara Kihavah’s Sea.Fire.Salt.Sky Dining Complex

Dining at Anantara Kihavah Villas

We ate so well during our stay at Anantara Kihavah Villas in the Maldives. A few more days there and we would have needed to start taking a daily swim around Kihavah Huravalhi Island to work off all the amazing food. We were pleasantly surprised at the variety of dining options available to keep breakfast, lunch, and dinner interesting. And we tried them all.

We were more concerned with photographing the pod of dolphins playing in front of our villa than our food

In-Villa Dining

We arrived shortly before lunchtime off an overnight flight and relished an afternoon in our amazing over water pool villa . We called up Mausool, our villa host, to order in-villa dining for lunch. In no time, he was unpacking a hot lunch of burgers and pizza margherita on our deck. I swam up to our deck just as he picked up the silver domes with a flourish. Who needs a swim-up bar when swim-up dining is available right in your villa?

Fresh coconut water served right in the coconut

Plates

Breakfast was quite literally the only time of day when we were distinctly aware we weren’t alone on the island. Everyone would converge from their villas for the amazing breakfast buffet served in Plates.

There was so much variety you could eat for a week and not have the same thing twice. Curry potatoes along side a cooked-to-order omelet, a yogurt topped with various fruit and granola from the toppings bar, and fresh fruit became some of the delicious ways I started each day. Each morning a different freshly squeezed juice was offered; Tim even tried the coconut juice. It was so fresh, it was served right in the coconut.

And if you need your daily dose of the news with breakfast, iPads are available for reading with breakfast.

Wagyu beef burger at Manzaru Pool Bar

Manzaru Poolbar and Restaurant

After returning from our snorkeling excursion, we were starved. We stopped by Manzaru and had a leisurely lunch poolside. The description alone of the Wagyu beef burger had our mouths watering. It arrived with four homemade sauces and a perfect portion of fries.

In the evening Manzaru turns into a fine Italian dining restaurant with Chef Umberto hailing from Bergamo, Italy. We were invited to a private dinner with a group of French journalists and Chef Umberto cooked us up a very special meal. We even had the opportunity to help make the homemade pasta, which was a preview of the cooking classes that can be arranged during your stay.

We all laughed over amazing food like an ahi tuna tartar, proscuitto in a creamy cheese sauce, and fresh pasta with truffles. Of course, there was also wine, which even Chef Umberto and the sous chefs helped us drink.

Sea.Fire.Salt.Sky

Sea.Fire.Salt.Sky is Anantara’s signature dining complex of four very unique restaurants. Sky was under renovation during our stay, but we did get to enjoy our very first Maldivian sunset with drinks and sushi appetizers at Sky’s rooftop lounge.

All the fixing to make Maldivian betel leaf wraps

At Salt, it’s all about salt as the name might imply. Food is served on Himalayan salt blocks and in Himalayan salt bowls. There is even a salt sommelier that brings various salts to enhance the flavors of each course.

Our 5-course feast at Salt was one of my favorite meals. From the skewered chicken served with a yogurt dipping sauce to the Wagyu beef that was cooked and served on a Himalayan salt brick, each course was more delicious than the last. We also really loved the betel leaf wraps. Take a betel leaf and sprinkle a little diced onion, lemon, and ginger. Add a chili pepper (just one because they’re spicy!), a little dried coconut, and some shrimp nuts. Spoon a little of the Thai sauce over it all, fold, and enjoy.

Fire is Anantara’s seaside teppanyaki lounge. The chefs dazzled us with their culinary acrobatic skills as scallops and wagyu beef flew under the thatched roof designed to look like a Samurai Edo helmet.

There was only one dining option we didn’t try. Anantara Kihavah offers Dining By Design where you can choose to dine privately on the beach, in one of the palm groves, or even on Anantara’s private island. Simply select your dream location for a romantic meal and Anantara’s chefs take care of the rest.

Dining Under the Sea

The Maldives is one of the world’s top diving destinations, but you don’t have to be a diver to experience the beautiful underwater world of the Maldives. We dined adventurously at Anantara Kihavah Sea Restaurant, part of the the quartet of Anantara’s signtaure Sea.Fire.Salt.Sky dining complex. Located on the ocean floor, Sea is a magical experience with 360-degree views of passing fish, turtles, and even sharks.

Lobster bisque with lobster fritters on asparagus sticks

Sea is open for both lunch and dinner. We were invited for lunch, which is a 3-course lobster lunch of lobster spring rolls, lobster bisque with lobster fritters on asparagus sticks, and grilled lobster. A molten chocolate brownie is a sweet finish to the incredible meal. While the food is absolutely delicious, the real magic of Sea is being beneath the sea while fish swim all around.

Sea turtles like to hang out on the reef around the Sea restaurant

Anantara Kihavah Sea Restaurant feels incredibly exclusive and luxe with just eight tables. Our 1pm reservation afforded us a lot of privacy, with just one our table dining at the same time. For part of our magical underwater meal, we even had the restaurant completely to ourselves. A baby sea turtle decided to join us, munching on the coral as we sipped wine and watched in amazement just a few feet away.

Each table has a book of reef fish so you can identify them as they swim by

Each table has a book of Maldivian reef fish and we had fun pointing out all the various fish swimming around and quickly flipping through the book to name them. “Oh look! There goes a trumpetfish,” I’d point out. “Hey, I saw that guy snorkeling yesterday. He’s called a Titan Triggerfish,” Tim countered back.

A sea turtle munches on coral at our table in Sea

A trumpet fish is one of the more unique fish that swam by during lunch

We were almost to distracted by all the colorful reef fish to eat. As we sat there enjoying a crazy-cool lunch under the sea, I started thinking that we should snorkel right around the restaurant. “I don’t think they want us swimming around the restaurant while people are trying to eat,” Tim said. Just then a couple went snorkeling by! The timing couldn’t have been more perfect to prove that snorkeling around the restaurant was a brilliant idea. (And so we did the next morning.)

Once we finally pulled ourselves away from all the magical fish, we spent a bit of time exploring the more than 250 labels in the underwater wine cellar. Classic vintages from 14 different countries fill the underwater wine cellar’s coolers and shelves.

We did peek into the restaurant at nighttime out of curiosity. Spotlights illuminate the water and some sharks were swimming by just as we had poked our heads in. But if we had to recommend lunch or dinner for the best viewing, we definitely recommend lunch.

The coral adoption program is part of the reef rehabilitation at Anantara Kihvaha

Coral Adoption Program

The Maldives is the lowest-lying country in the world, lying an average of just 1.5 meters (4 feet, 11 inches) above sea level. The Maldives often appears on lists of places to visit before they vanish and rising sea levels have already forced entire populations to relocate to other islands over the last two decades. Anantara Kihavah Villas, located on the Baa Atoll which was declared a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve in 2011, is ensuring countless magical beach vacations just like Tim and I had are part of the future through their Coral Adoption Program.

Coral reefs protect the pristine white beaches surrounding Kihavah Huravalhi Island and play host to an array of Maldivian reef fish, lobsters, and other bizarre looking creatures. Coral is a sensitive organism though, vulnerable to extreme weather and sudden environmental changes. Coral is so sensitive that when El Niño raised sea temperatures by 4°C in 1998, 90% of shallow coral reef was lost in the Maldives. Again just recently in 2016, the longest global coral bleaching event in history occured and impacted the reef at all four Anantara properties in the Indian Ocena.

Anantara Kihavah Villas’ Coral Adoption Program works to rebuild and replant the reef that was lost. They have also introduced HARP, Holistic Approach to Reef Protection, and between the two initiatives have almost fully rejuvenated the reef around the Sea underwater restaurant since the bleaching event.

During the construction of Anantara Kihavah Villas in November 2010, the resident marine biologist created coral gardens by attaching coral to iron frames in the middle of the over water pool villas’ lagoon. When the coral garden is finished, it will resemble an “A”, to stand for Anantara, of course!

The coral adoption is an important part of reef rejuvenation at Anantara Kihavah

Guests of Anantara Kihavah Villas can contribute to the on-going reef conservation effort in the Baa Atoll by adopting a coral frame from the resort’s website. The resident marine biologist helps guests transplant their very own coral onto the iron frames in the lagoon and you can even monitor the growth of your coral on the website. Photos are taken by the resident marine biologist every three months.

I put on my flippers and mask to take my own peek at the coral garden in the lagoon. The coral frames provide an easy snorkeling trail and fish have already begun to return to the reef. I even saw stingrays and black tip reef sharks in the lagoon!

By purchasing a small frame at $100, a medium frame at $200, or a large frame at $400, you can help save our oceans.

Know Before You Go

Getting ThereBooking

International flights arrive to Malé. Anantara Kihavah Villas is reached by 35-minute sea plane transfer from Malé. The sea planes do not fly in the dark, so if you arrive to Malé in the late afternoon or evening, you’ll need to stay the night in Malé.

Over water pool villas at Anantara Kihavah Villas start at $1348 per night. There is a mandatory sea plane transfer fee of $1240 roundtrip per booking. In case you’d still like to be digitally connected on this island paradise, Anantara Kihavah has free wifi in all villas and throughout the island at the various restaurants and spa. When you book directly with our Anantara partner site, you receive a complimentary dinner for two people each night at selected restaurants.

Our trip to the Maldives was hosted by Anantara Kihavah Villas in order to bring you this story.However, Luxe Adventure Traveler maintains full editorial control of the content published on this site. As always, all thoughts, opinions, and enthusiasm for travel are entirely our own. As always, all thoughts, opinions, and enthusiasm for travel are entirely our own. This article contains affiliate links. When you book on Anantara or Booking.com through our affiliate sites, we earn a small commission at no additional cost to you.

Craving a monthly dose of travel inspiration? Sign up for our free newsletter!

Did you enjoy our post on

Anantara Kihavah Villas Maldives: Paradise on Earth

Then share it with your friends!

About Jennifer Dombrowski

Jennifer Dombrowski is an independent travel publisher and an American expat who has lived in Bordeaux, France since 2016. She previously lived in Northern Italy in a small village near Venice for seven years where she fell in love with wine and wine tourism. She is an award-winning travel writer. She is also a travel correspondent on Traveling on the American Forces Radio Network. Luxe Adventure Traveler was named one of the top travel blogs to watch by the Huffington Post and TripAdvisor, and has been featured by top publications such as National Geographic, CNN, Buzzfeed, and Business Insider. Jennifer's photography has also been featured on publications such as USA Today and Travel + Leisure and on the Travel Channel.

Absolutely gorgeous! Reminds me a lot of Bora Bora, although somehow this is MUCH more expensive. Your bathroom set-up sounds a lot more luxurious, although I have to wonder, theoretically, couldn’t someone swim up underneath your glass bottom bathtub? Just a silly thought 🙂 Sounds like you guys had an amazing time! I love the direct access to the water from your bungalow, that was one of my favorite parts of staying in one in Bora Bora.

Too funny, Ali! Yes, someone could swim up under the tub since each villa sits separately on stilts. That’d be an awful lot of money to spend to get to such an exclusive island for a peep show though. 😉 I couldn’t even get Tim to go for a night swim in the ocean because we couldn’t see. He was worried about stepping on a stingray or stonefish.

One of the most beautiful and pristine places we’ve ever been, Freya! That’s why we’re passionate about efforts to help conserve these islands. They may not be here in another 20 years because of rising ocean levels.

That’s really cool! The Maldives is such a precious place, so glad to see these types of conservation efforts going on. It would be a lot of fun to go back in decade to see the coral gardens at their full potential. Or better yet, go back once a year for 10 years and document their growth. ?

That looks phenomenal! We were lucky enough to go to the Maldives last week and found it just magical – we didn’t stay anywhere as lovely as Anantara but we decided we’re definitely going back so I will look this one up. Love that there were dolphins to greet you on arrival!

We stayed at a Holiday Inn branded resort called Kandooma – 45 min speedboat ride from Male. It was actually very good, particularly good value although lots of families/kids etc but we were with a group of mates so that didn’t really matter. We got a deal through expedia for flights + accom from Singapore and it was very reasonable. We also dived a couple of the reefs nearby and were blown away by the marine life.

Anantara Kihavah was the most memorable and breathtaking honeymoon experience – our time there exceeded all our expectations and was more than we could have ever hoped or dreamed. In all our travels around the world to numerous hotels and resorts, we have never had such a wonderful experience as we did at Khiavah.

Meet Jennifer & Tim

We’re Jennifer and Tim. We’re professional travel writers and photographers who love adventure and wine, so we often try to combine the two. By day, you’ll find us out on some crazy adventure like snorkeling in Iceland in winter or on a long distance hut-to-hut hike in the Dolomites, but by night, we’re creatures of comfort. If you’re looking for a travel blog about a long-term around-the-world journey, how to travel on $50 a day or less or traveling with kids, Luxe Adventure Traveler isn’t it. Our award-winning travel blog is all about heart pumping adventures, world class accommodations and luxury experiences. Read more...

Where do you want to go?

Get inspired with our latest on Instagram!

Join Our Facebook Community

Support Luxe Adventure Traveler and Book Your Next Hotel on our Partner Site